Benny Bunter
Well-known member
There is very little rhythmic innovation in jackin, struggle to see how you could try and draw parallels with it to funky. Everything's surrounded by those tired drum patterns you could have heard any time in the last 5-10 years in Northern clubs. If it had funky style syncopation and big rude basslines then it'd be a different proposition but it doesn't. Tbh most of the bass sounds are quite hollow in jackin as well. But that's just my perspective, not trying to tell you what to like and what not to.
The MCs killed off funky really, all those skank tunes. It's a shame because it was great- and probably the last proper London scene- but it's gone now.
I know its just your perspective and personal taste but I do have to engage with this.
Datwun never claimed Jackin had rhythmic innovation though. He was quite clearly comparing the general vibe of Jackin' with funky - and in many ways he's right. Like funky its not a self-consciously innovative scene, though it does manage to create plenty of fresh sounds on the way through this lack of self-conscious fiddliness that has stifled alot of uk dance music and made it boring for me.
Also complaining about 4x4 drum patterns in a scene called JACKIN HOUSE seems to completely miss the point. You might aswell criticise jungle for having breakbeats. Everybody's obsessed with swing and syncopation but for jackin's purposes this is unnecessary for what it attempts to do. Someone in the jackin thread described lorenzo's 'Coke diet' as 'neck-snapping', and this effect relies on the rigid 4x4 beats. 4x4 is not the devil. For those that do like to mix it up, like DJ Q to take the best example, these straight beats can sound great mixed with proper garage and other stuff with broken rhythms, and this is part of the versatility and virtue of 4x4 for the DJ.
As for lacking rude and weighty basslines...I honestly don't know where to start as they are everywhere in Jackin, especially Lorenzo. Try telling the bassline on this doesn't slay
Theres no way MCs killed off funky either - always loved Shantie, Majestic, Hot-S, Ranking, Dream, Topsee etc etc. In fact I would have liked to have seen this developed even more but Petchy's shows seem like a potential direction that went unfulfilled to me now. There were some good skank tunes too, I'll always have affection for migraine skank and even Head shoulders knees and toes - they were a part of the scene and they were fun, and anyway it was a fairly brief fad even if you hated them.
One more point - funky was alive and kicking for a good 5 years or so which is a long time in this game, so I don't really agree when Datwun says it might have had another few years left. i think it was just time to move on. And anyway, we've got azonto now
edit: sorry Slackk theres been about 5 posts since I started writing that
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